Thomas Aquinas discussed merit extensively in his early Commentary on the Sentences and in his mature Summa Theologica. In both texts, Aquinas views human life as a "journey" which starts with the conversion from sin to grace and ends in the beatific vision, a process marked by the good actions which make the soul closer to God and hold the divine approval. Acknowledging the difficulties of affirming the possibility of human merit before a divine entity, Thomism develops thoroughly on the concept in order to defend the Catholic position.[1]
In the Summa Theologica, Aquinas develops on merit as part of his teachings on grace and categorizes it as "an effect of cooperating grace". The Doctor distinguishes merit from rewards, as the latter is something bestowed by reason of the former. Merit seems to be a "function of justice", which as such would depend on an equality between both agents. This approach appears problematic considering that humans are not equal to God and therefore cannot demand nor make claims on the latter. Therefore, Aquinas characterizes merit as part of the "divine ordination", by which God desires to bring all things to their ends according to the divine will and therefore is not "our debtor simply but His own, inasmuch as it is right that His will should be carried out". For this to be possible, God gives men the necessary grace to be able to carry out what would be impossible by nature.[2]
Merit can be subdivided between condign and congruous merit. Condign merit is that which is "the right in strict justice to a reward", while congruous merit is "based on what is fitting in a given situation". Taking merit as proceeding from human free will, Aquinas concludes that men by themselves can only merit congruously. However, as grace allows Christians to participate in the divine nature as adopted sons of God, they can merit condignly by the meritorious works performed through the action of the Holy Spirit in them.[3]
Aquinas does not make recourse to this in his Commentary on the Sentences. The fact that humans are able to merit before God is firstly defended by using the Aristotelian categorization of justice: as merit is to be understood as pertaining to distributive and not to commutative justice, the objection regarding an inequality between God and men is dismissed. Secondly, merit is taken to be possible as part of the divine covenant or promise. As God has freely decided to render a reward for human merit, meritorious acts cannot be said to establish a debt because such debt has been self-imposed by God. His free decision to promise such an answer annuls the possibility of human debt, and only implies being faithful to what has already been affirmed. As later championed in the Summa, the divine ordination implies that "God has ordained that what human beings do, despite its intrinsic inferiority, will nevertheless be treated as deserving of eternal life".[4]
The role of the merits of Jesus Christ is crucial in the Thomistic theology of merit. Thomas "not only holds that Christ could merit but also that he merited from the first moment of his human existence".[5] The merits of Jesus hold a preeminent position in the salvation process, standing above satisfaction, sacrifice and redemption.[6]
As condign merit is a personal title, however, the question regarding how Christ can merit salvation for mankind is risen. Aquinas explains this process through the believer's incorporation into the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ, in which the merits of Jesus are communicated to human beings. Salvation is therefore described as a "mystical union between Christ and the faithful".[7] The merits of Christ are communicated to men when, in baptismal regeneration, they are made participants of his Body. Following Saint Porphyrius' idea by which "all men are one man in common nature", Aquinas affirms that Christ can merit for other humans "representing humanity before God and thus meriting on behalf of the whole of the human community" because of the essential conjunction (coniunctio essentialis) held with them. Human beings can only be united to each other by an accidental conjunction of affection (coniunctio affectus), but Christ as the Last Adam had joined human beings in a communio in natura. Christ's humanity is to a certain degree understood as an "instrument" of the divinity through which the whole of mankind is influenced.[8]
As to how Christ could merit considering he had possessed the beatific vision since his conception and during his whole earthly life, as Aquinas contended, the theologian follows Peter Lombard and Gregory the Great in affirming that "one and the same reward could be merited in various ways, not in the sense that it became more due but rather in that it was made due for various reasons, so that one, as it were, obtained several titles to the same good".[5]
When reflecting on the object of merit, Aquinas distinguishes things that can be merited from things that cannot. Both initial justification and restoration to grace after committing a mortal sin cannot be merited congruously nor condignly. Final perseverance is also part of this group. On the other hand, one can congruously merit the first grace for another and condignly merit an increase of grace and eternal life for himself.[9] Generally speaking, the main rewards on meritorious actions can be read in the Summa and the Super Sententias as eternal life itself and the increase in "habitual grace", by which human beings may keep performing good acts.[10] Aquinas places a particular emphasis on the object and reward of merit in his Commentary on the Sentences, in which he is not particularly concerned with which actions can be taken as meritorious and which cannot.[11]
It is in his Commentary on Matthew that Thomas joins meritorious acts and their rewards when discussing the beatitudes. Aquinas characterizes each as composed of a meritum and a correspondent praemium, and the reception of the latter is due to Christ's promise. Therefore, in the first beatitude, poverty in spirit is the merit and the Kingdom of Heaven its reward. The Doctor develops extensively on the subject in the prologue to such chapter, in which he appeals to Aristotle's "heroic virtue" as a form of action "above the human manner". This kind of actions are performed only through grace in Catholic theology, and thefore merits are "either acts of the gifts [of the Holy Spirit], or acts of the virtues according as they are perfected by the gifts".[12]
Merit is presented here as a form of virtuous action, performed under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. One of the reasons to perform these actions is that they are part of the new law. To Aquinas everything that is said in the Sermon on the Mount is a concrete application of the merits described in the Beatitudes: 'Just as Moses first set down the commandments, and afterwards said many things which were all referred back to the commandments given, so Christ in his teaching first sets forth these Beatitudes, to which all the other things are reduced'.[13]
But merit means more than simply obeying the Law, as it implies acting towards the final end which is happiness. Despite happiness will only be fully attained in Heaven and therefore the promise shall not be fulfilled in a complete sense during earthly life, following the beatitudes nevertheless derives in being rewarded with a certain earthly happiness, composed, for instance, of the loosening of sins and the defeat of one's defects.[13] Regarding the possibility of meriting the first grace for others, Aquinas states that only Christ can said to do so condignly as the head of the Church.[14] However, one can merit the first grace for another person in a congruous sense. As put in the Summa Theologica:[15]
It is clear that no one can merit condignly for another his first grace, save Christ alone; (…) inasmuch as He is the Head of the Church, and the Author of human salvation (...) But one may merit the first grace for another congruously; because a man in grace fulfills God’s will, and it is congruous and in harmony with friendship that God should fulfill man's desire for the salvation of another.[15]
This position led later Thomists such as Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange to propose a third kind of merit, mostly associated to the Virgin Mary in her advocation as Mediatrix. As the former defined it, the merit "de congruo proprie" implies the "merit of becomingness" which "is founded on charity or friendship with God, rather than on justice". As put in The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Christ would have "satisfied for us in strict justice by His human acts which drew from His divine personality an infinite value capable of making reparation (...) Mary satisfied for us by a satisfaction based, not on strict justice, but on the rights of the infinite friendship or charity which united her to God".[16]Saint Pius X would make a similar point at Ad diem illum, in which he affirmed that
We are then, it will be seen, very far from attributing to the Mother of God a productive power of grace–a power which belongs to God alone. Yet, since Mary carries it over all in holiness and union with Jesus Christ, and has been associated by Jesus Christ in the work of redemption, she merits for us de congruo, in the language of theologians, what Jesus Christ merits for us de condigno, and she is the supreme Minister of the distribution of graces.[17]
Regarding the conditions for an act to be meritorious, Catholic theologians have held different positions. Duns Scotus had affirmed that the works of those justified were meritorious on account of the "divine promise" or covenant, whereas later Thomists such as Thomas Cajetan or Domingo de Soto defended that works condignly meritorious were so because of the works themselves.[18]
The "principle of merit" in which every meritorious action must be founded is "charity founded in sanctifying habitual grace".[19] Furthermore, two conditions must be met for meriting: namely the "facultas merendi" (capacity to merit) and the "status merentis" (state of meriting). The facultas merendi implies that a person is in control of his own acts through free choice and that divine grace is present in the action. The status merentis refers generally to earthly life, a situation in which human beings can perform meritorious actions in contrast to the heavenly beatitude in which they already possess what merit is directed to.[20] From a Thomistic point of view, the individual must also be in a state of grace for an act to be meritorious.[9]
1586 front page of the commentary on the Secundam Secundae of the Summa Theologica by Domingo Báñez.
This conditions follow from the belief that only believers can perform actually meritorious acts, while unbelievers can do morally good works which are not meritorious. Some acts, namely those good works of someone who does not have Christian charity, are therefore indifferent to merit or demerit. As charity is dependent on faith, unbelievers cannot be said to hold Christian charity and therefore cannot merit eternal life in any sense through this acts according to Thomism, what differs from other assessments of invincible ignorance.[21]
The distinction between moral goodness and merit is central to Thomistic theology of merit. As Thomism asserts that evil is the privation of a due good, a morally evil action is that which lacks the due order in a voluntary act. Moral goodness is to be measured by reason, and is said to belong to a "voluntary act in which nothing is lacking with respect to the order of reason in its object, end, and circumstances", while moral evil is the lack of something due to the act itself. Any defect in object, end and circumstances of an act diminishes its goodness, but as merit is not any of these but something superadded, the lack of merit does not impede that morally good actions may indeed be performed by unbelievers. Aquinas explains this through the following analogy: a horse can be said to be defective if it is lacking sight or legs, as both should be present in the animal, but is not defective because of lacking rationality as such a property does not naturally belong to the horse. The defect of morally good actions which do not elude merit is supernatural, not natural, and therefore does not imply a privation in the act itself (what could make it an evil deed). The disorder is to be found on the agent's lack of charity.[22]
Thomists from the School of Salamanca traditionally argued against necessity of grace for the performance of the unbelievers' morally good acts. Francisco de Vitoria and Domingo Báñez attributed such position to John Capreolus, but there is no conclusive evidence regarding the latter's views. Báñez stated that "[w]hether he is a believer or an unbeliever, a sinner can do many morally good works without any supernatural help" and that "with only the general help of God, the author of nature, which is always presupposed, a man is able to work some good which is proportionate to rational nature". Such acts, however, cannot merit salvation in Báñez' system, "[a]nd the reason is because even congruous merit presupposes friendship, or at least excludes enmity with God himself...no aspect of congruity can be received on the side of the rational creature which is in sin, so that God could pay him a reward belonging to a supernatural order, such as is grace, which is the root of eternal life".[23] Capreolus holds a similar position in stating that the unbelievers' good deeds are irrelevant to their salvation and have no merit.[24]
Merit in divine judgment
1850 engraving depicting Matthew 25 (Come, ye blessed of My Father) at an illustrated English translation of the Vulgate
The Thomistic notion of merit is crucial to such tradition's understanding of the Last Judgment and the subsequent beatific vision. As it has been already mentioned regarding Aquinas' treatment of happiness in life, the fullness of the divine promises for those who perform meritorious actions is to be found only in Heaven. Thomas develops on his views when commenting on Matthew 25:31-46.[25]
According to Aquinas, the Last Judgment is ultimately a judgment of merits, after which the reward of eternal happiness follows from two causes: "[o]ne on God’s part, i.e., God’s blessing, another on our part, i.e., the merit which is from free will. For men should not be idle, but should cooperate with God’s grace".[25] The consideration of human actions in the Judgment presupposes their achievement through grace, what makes God to recognize the latter's operation in a soul rather than only taking the human will into account. The Judgment functions as a "bridge" between merit and its rewards, and therefore the reward is in fact given freely despite merits are evaluated.[26] In the Summa, Thomas follows Saint Augustine of Hippo in affirming that "He who made you without you, will not save you without you".[27]
The meritorious act considered in itself (secundum substantiam operis) as proceeding from free choice in no longer sufficient for condignity but merely for congruity. Instead, condignity is due to the value (valor) of the power (virtus) of the Holy Spirit acting in us. This not only introduces a more explicit Trinitarian and hence Christological aspect, but it also establishes a more fitting proportion between merit and reward. Just as the end of human life is uncreated, so it is fitting that the principle by which we attain beatitude should also be uncreated, and in a similar way as Christ merited infinitely because his theandric acts were the actions of the one who is both God and man in one person, so we merit condignly because we are moved by a divine person, namely the Holy Spirit, who nevertheless influences us in such a way as not to abolish free choice and human cooperation.[28]
The heavenly reward for condign merit is said to be of the same genus (ad idem genus) as the reward.[19] Therefore, as condignly meritorious actions proceed from grace, their reward shall be the consummation of grace in eternal glory. In a particular sense, every virtue appears as meriting a proportionate reward: exaltation is then merited by humility, abundance by poverty, and so forth. Christian charity, which is the principle of all meritorious action, is proportionately rewarded by "seeing, loving and delighting in God". However, the proportionality axiom seems problematic due to the "maximum inequality" between God and human beings. To solve this objection, Aquinas makes use of the concept of equality of proportion. Resorting to cases in which human commutative justice is applied under an "imperfect sense" because of a relational inequality (such as that between a father and his son), Aquinas teaches that[29]
since there is nothing that is equal to God and all things exist by participation in him, it follows that if there should be any justice and thus merit between God and creatures, it will be of a very special kind: it will be according to a certain proportion, inasmuch each operates according to his own mode (secundum modum suum), i.e. it will be based on the unique relationship that obtains between human beings and God. Now, since the mode and measure (modus et mensura) of human power (virtus) is from God, this takes us back to divine ordination, for the end of human power (virtus) is precisely that we should merit eternal life. It should also be noted that not only man but also God operates according to his own mode, which hints at the fact that the divine ordination inherent in nature is in turn based on the order found in God’s goodness, justice, mercy, and we might also add: being.[30]
The Thomistic point of view was criticized by Martin Luther, who rejected the possibility of justice in condign merit. Some Lutherans kept using merit as a term, but attempted to remove any notion which implied a just treatment and reduce the concept to a form of mercy. Luther denied the doctrine formally as early as 1518 and later, in his On the Bondage of the Will, asserted that the Scholastics were "worse than the Pelagians" as the latter at least "confess and assert condign merit, simply, candidly, and ingenuously, calling a spade a spade and a fig a fig, and teaching what they really believe". In his 1535 commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, the German preacher called merit the "theology of the antichristian kingdom" and the "tricks of Satan". Including works performed after initial justification and during the sanctification process, Luther took all human actions to be essentially sinful and affirmed that "[t]rying to merit grace is trying to placate God with sins". This aligns with his affirmation according to which "[a] good work, well done, is a venial sin according to the mercy of God, but a mortal sin according to the judgment of God".[31]
Luther developed on his views as part of his radical opposition between the Law and the Gospel, which set both to be "not just distinct but also antithetical". According to his views, the Gospel does not "command one to do anything but invites one simply to receive the offered grace of the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation".[32]
In Catholic theology, Limbo is the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. However, it has become the general term to refer to nothing between time and space in general. Medieval theologians of Western Europe described the underworld as divided into three distinct parts: Hell of the Damned, Limbo of the Fathers or Patriarchs, and Limbo of the Infants. The Limbo of the Fathers is an official doctrine of the Catholic Church, but the Limbo of the Infants is not. The concept of Limbo comes from the idea that, in the case of Limbo of the Fathers, good people were not able to achieve heaven just because they were born before the birth of Jesus Christ. This is also true for Limbo of the Infants in that simply because a child died before baptism, does not mean they deserve punishment, though they cannot achieve salvation.
Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby God's omniscience seems incompatible with human free will. In this usage, predestination can be regarded as a form of religious determinism; and usually predeterminism, also known as theological determinism.
Theological virtues are virtues associated in Christian theology and philosophy with salvation resulting from the grace of God. Virtues are traits or qualities which dispose one to conduct oneself in a morally good manner. Traditionally the theological virtues have been named faith, hope, and charity (love). They are coupled with the four natural or cardinal virtues, and opposed to the seven deadly sins.
Justificatio sola fide, meaning justification by faith alone, is a soteriological doctrine in Christian theology commonly held to distinguish the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Protestantism, among others, from the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian and Anabaptist churches. The doctrine asserts that it is on the basis of faith alone that believers are made right of sin ; and not on the basis of what Paul the Apostle calls "works of the law", which sola fide proponents interpret as including not only moral, legal or ceremonial requirements but any good works or "works of charity."
In Christian theology, merit accrues when a believer's good work incurs "a future reward from a graceful God". The role of human merit in Christian life has been a point of dispute between Catholics and Protestants.
In Western Christian beliefs, grace is created by God who gives it as help to one because God desires one to have it, not necessarily because of anything one has done to earn it. It is understood by Western Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to people – "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" – that takes the form of divine favor, love, clemency, and a share in the divine life of God. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, grace is the uncreated Energies of God. Among Eastern Christians generally, grace is considered to be the partaking of the Divine Nature described in 2 Peter 1:4 and grace is the working of God himself, not a created substance of any kind that can be treated like a commodity.
In Christianity, salvation is the saving of human beings from sin and its consequences—which include death and separation from God—by Christ's death and resurrection, and the justification entailed by this salvation.
In Christian theology, justification is the event or process by which sinners are made or declared to be righteous in the sight of God.
Unconditional election is a Calvinist doctrine relating to predestination that describes the actions and motives of God prior to his creation of the world, when he predestined some people to receive salvation, the elect, and the rest he left to continue in their sins and receive the just punishment, eternal damnation, for their transgressions of God's law as outlined in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. God made these choices according to his own purposes apart from any conditions or qualities related to those persons.
In Christian theology, the beatific vision refers to the ultimate state of happiness that believers will experience when they see God face to face in heaven. It is the ultimate direct self-communication of God to the angel and person. A person or angel possessing the beatific vision reaches, as a member of the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e., heaven. The notion of vision stresses the intellectual component of salvation, i.e., the immediate contemplation of God, though it encompasses the whole of the experience of joy, with happiness coming from seeing God finally face to face and not imperfectly through faith..
Prevenient grace is a Christian theological concept that refers to the grace of God in a person's life which precedes and prepares to conversion. The concept was first developed by Augustine of Hippo (354–430), was affirmed by the Second Council of Orange (529) and has become part of Catholic theology. The concept is also present in Eastern Orthodoxy and Wesleyan-Arminian theology where prevenient grace is understood as universally dispensed, enabling all individuals to have faith while leaving acceptance dependent on libertarian free will. In Reformed theology, it appears in the form of effectual calling, through which God's grace irresistibly leads certain individuals to salvation.
As a general term in theological use, assurance refers to a believer's confidence in God, God's response to prayer, and the hope of eternal salvation. In Protestant Christian doctrine, the term "assurance", also known as the Witness of the Spirit, affirms that the inner witness of the Holy Spirit allows the Christian disciple to know that they are justified. Based on the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo, assurance was historically an important doctrine in Lutheranism and Calvinism, and remains a distinguishing doctrine of Methodism and Quakerism, although there are differences among these Christian traditions. Hymns that celebrate the witness of the Holy Spirit, such as Fanny Crosby's "Blessed Assurance", are sung in Christian liturgies to celebrate the belief in assurance.
The satisfaction theory of atonement is a theory in Catholic theology which holds that Jesus Christ redeemed humanity through making satisfaction for humankind's disobedience through his own supererogatory obedience. The theory draws primarily from the works of Anselm of Canterbury, specifically his Cur Deus Homo. Since one of God's characteristics is justice, affronts to that justice must be atoned for. It is thus connected with the legal concept of balancing out an injustice.
The Summa Theologiae or Summa Theologica, often referred to simply as the Summa, is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main theological teachings of the Catholic Church, intended to be an instructional guide for theology students, including seminarians and the literate laity. Presenting the reasoning for almost all points of Christian theology in the West, topics of the Summa follow the following cycle: God; Creation, Man; Man's purpose; Christ; the Sacraments; and back to God.
The history of the Calvinist–Arminian debate begins in the early 17th century in the Netherlands with a Christian theological dispute between the followers of John Calvin and Jacobus Arminius and continues today among some Protestants, particularly evangelicals. The debate centers around soteriology and includes disputes about total depravity, predestination, and atonement. While the debate was given its Calvinist–Arminian form in the 17th century, issues central to the debate have been discussed in Christianity in some form since Augustine of Hippo's disputes with the Pelagians in the 5th century.
Free will in theology is an important part of the debate on free will in general. Religions vary greatly in their response to the standard argument against free will and thus might appeal to any number of responses to the paradox of free will, the claim that omniscience and free will are incompatible.
Condign merit is an aspect of Catholic theology signifying merit with the dignity of Christ. A person born again in Christ does not merit of his own virtue but the virtues of Christ are applied to his work. Therefore, it is God crowning his works.
In Christian theology, good works, or simply works, are a person's (exterior) actions and deeds that align with the moral teachings, emphasizing compassion, charity, kindness and adherence to biblical principles, in contrast to inner qualities such as grace or faith. Rooted in the belief that faith should manifest in positive actions, the concept underscores the importance of living out one's faith through generosity. Adherents emphasize the significance of engaging in altruism as a demonstration of their devotion to God. These actions, guided by the moral and ethical teachings of the Bible, are viewed as tangible expressions of love, obedience and righteousness within the framework of the Christian worldview. The concept of good works is intricately linked to the theological belief in salvation through faith rather than a means of earning salvation, as Christians seek to manifest their gratitude for God's grace by actively participating in acts of service to others. This theological perspective places significance on the transformative power of good works in fostering a life reflective of Christian values. Christians are often encouraged to love their neighbors, care for the unfortunate, and promote moral values in their communities.
In Christianity, sin is an immoral act and transgression of divine law. The doctrine of sin is central to the Christian faith, since its basic message is about redemption in Christ.
Sola gratia, meaning by grace alone, is one of the five solae and consists in the belief that salvation comes by divine grace or "unmerited favor" only, not as something earned or deserved by the sinner. It is a Christian theological doctrine held by some Protestant Christian denominations, in particular the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Protestantism, propounded to summarise the Protestant Reformers' basic soteriology during the Reformation. In addition, salvation by grace is taught by the Catholic Church: "By the grace of God, we are saved through our faith; this faith entails by its very nature, good works, always enabled by prior grace, without which this faith is dead."
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